Readers' Comments (6)

B&H really? You're citing this as a "fact-check?" If you read this all it says is that this particular quote is often attributed to Keynes, which WOULD be ironic if it were true, but as the post goes on to say, two Keynes biographers don't believe he actually even said it. So there is no "fact check" here, just speculation. Come on guys.

This is his defense for flip flopping... I think Mitt made a freudian slip! OMG... I hope the Perry people got this one... OMG... This could sink him ... bye bye Mitt! What a twit...

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" - John Maynard Keynes the father of Keynesian economic theory! "which calls for government intervention in economies to balance market forces, and who is loathed by many conservatives".

Romney ... "In the private sector, if you don't change your view when the facts change, well you'll get fired for being stubborn and stupid." Romney said. "Winston Chuchill said, 'When the facts change, I change too, Madam'"

Full story firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/29/8040219-irony-alert-romney-cites-wrong-brit-in-defense-of-flip-flops

So what. If that's all you "journalists" can come up w/for a story, then you're no journalist. It's trivia. And why waste your time (unless your time is so invaluable) and readers time (which is definitely more valuable) w/ " trivia pursuit"?? Get a life or get a different job.

Actually, if you do a google search, this quote is attributed to Churchill quite often, including by Dick Morris in a New York Times piece. The closest non-apocryphal source might be this:

"A silly ass ... wrote a paper to prove me inconsistent. ... Inconsistency is the bugbear of fools! I wouldn't give a damn for a fellow who couldn't change his mind with a change of conditions."

- John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, British Admiral and First Sea Lord, in a letter to former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (ndg); reported in Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904-1919. (1961-1965); quoted by Robert K. Massie in Deadnought: Britain, Germany and the Comiing of the Great War (1991).

Actually, if you do a google search, this quote is attributed to Churchill quite often, including by Dick Morris in a New York Times piece. The closest non-apocryphal source might be this:

"A silly ass ... wrote a paper to prove me inconsistent. ... Inconsistency is the bugbear of fools! I wouldn't give a damn for a fellow who couldn't change his mind with a change of conditions."

- John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, British Admiral and First Sea Lord, in a letter to former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (ndg); reported in Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904-1919. (1961-1965); quoted by Robert K. Massie in Deadnought: Britain, Germany and the Comiing of the Great War (1991).